Part of
Library Postcards: Civic Pride in a Lost America.
Illinois communities tended to know a good thing when they
saw it: hence, many accepted Carnegie funding. The 105 state
Carnegie grant total does not include college libraries
(North Central College, Naperville; Monmouth College, Galesburg).
I treat the Danville VA Carnegie building as a public library on these pages.

Edwardsville

The web site
is a little different. However, it's quite easy to navigate.
Its history page is bereft of photographs (recently, videos were added), but is quite well written by
authors Amy Anson, Kevin Becker, and Amanda Endicott.To summarize,
the 1903 Carnegie building first needed renovation in the 1950s. During this
period, a 1956 fire essentially gutted the building. It reopened in 1957.
1964 saw an addition, as did 1989.

Evanston

(L, below) Another V.O. Hammon card, mailed in 1917.
(R, below) RPPC found in a box of random building post cards. This is a library building I recognized straight off.

1907 - 1975

According to Evanston Public Library Lore
on its web site,
a $50,000 Carnegie grant built this building.

What they don't tell you is that it took many years of wrangling
to get it done. In 1903, they got one grant. A 1906 grant request was
turned down. The building was opened in 1907. The grant was
renewed in 1914, and more construction took place in 1915.
(Here, the Bials are unclear. I bet there are some missing EPL
records.) After all that hassle, they moved in 1960.

Farmington

1906 grant: still in use, but with altered windows.
I seem to remember this building from the late 1970s. Even then, it needed a little TLC
for its curb appeal.

Flora

Probably by C.U. Williams.

L.L. Cook photo postcard,
mailed in 1962.

Wayne Box & Printing Co. product.

1903 - 1990
This is the only Illinois Carnegie library building I know of which was
condemned.

On their recently upgraded web site,
Flora
Public Library titles this page, 'A Brief History of the Flora
Public Library.'
Read the rules section. I like 7 - 10 the best.

Freeport

1901 Carnegie grant. Replaced in 2004. Still in limbo, but there has been debate about reusing the Carnegie building as the city hall.
The library's featured
photo of the new
building
looks like Ed Ruscha had a hand in it.

John Cook, Freeport historian, lists libraries built by Patton and Miller,
including Carnegie Libraries in Belvidere (Ida Public), Polo (Buffalo Twp.), Freeport, and Warren.
The Freeport Library was the oldest Carnegie library still in use in Illinois at the time it was replaced.

The German card (R) appears to have been made by the same printer who published
the Decatur card and several others on these pages.

(R) 'We are very proud of our library'
It's not that I'm as proud of your library:
there seem to be an inordinate number of
different cards of it about.

Fulton (Schmaling Memorial Library)

(L, below) What an fulminatingly ugly card! Probably it was printed by Massure.
Worse yet, A.D. Mitchell used it to advertise his
second-rate cards:

A.D. Mitchell & Son
Fulton, Illinois
Have the largest and most up-to-date line in the city. Local views, birthday
greetings, etc. Colored cards like this one - Main Street, School, Library and Bridge -
each (one) ............1¢

(R, below) I believe that this card was commissioned by the library itself, because of the poem inscribed on the reverse:

October Twenty seventh nineteen nine!
If there's nothing to the contrary,
The Fulton Public Library
Will set apart the given date,
Its building now to dedicate.
Among the books of value there
Will be a record beyond compare,
A gift book, naming each donation
And its giver in like notation
We need your name upon the sheet
To make the record more complete.

Dr. Hannah Nichols Schmaling served as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Whiteside County Medical Society, donated the Library's
land, and endowed it with the funds that enabled the acquisition of the 1908 Carnegie grant. It opened in 1909, and is still in use.
Full history
on the library's site.

Galena

(L) No publishing information.
(R) E.W. Kempter card.
(L, below) No card attribution, but with an entire back, it dates between the 1905 grant and
the 1907 demise of the entire back postcard.
(R, below) Tremendous interior scene by Curt Teich (C.T. Photochrom) for E.W. Kempter of
Galena. Notice that it had gas
lighting.*
Dibs on the square table next to the window.
Apparently the books were shelved according to color.
*Despite the fact
that so many of these buildings did not have electricity early on, I don't
know of any fires or explosions caused by gas.

Federal-style adaptation of the Carnegie plan.
The Library's site
contains an excellently written history of its existence. I would gladly pay 10 cents for a
catalogue of holdings!
Supposedly, the Peabody, Kansas Carnegie Library shared the same
plans with this building, but it isn't an obvious relationship. Maybe fraternal,
not identical twins?

Galesburg

Built 1901-2, the Galesburg Carnegie Library was lost to fire on May 9, 1958.
It's an Italianate building with some odd little portholes on the roofline.
The library's web site
called the building Romanesque. I don't. You may. Moot point. It burnt.

Geneva

(L) Winter scene, monochrome card.
(R) Ekdahl-Skogdahl card.

1907 grant: still in use.

Geneva,
St. Charles, and
Batavia essentially form a single community.
St. Charles' library was also a Carnegie building, albeit more of a
'typical' one. Geneva's was a very attractive Tudor-style limestone building.
It looks a little like a ski lodge to me.

Gilman

(L) Curt Teich 'Photo-finish' card. The code, 115289, does not seem to correlate
with the known coding scheme published by the Lake County Forest Preserves'
Curt Teich Postcard Archives.
Probably not visible to the reader are
the stained glass upper window panes.
(R) Curt Teich 'Blue-Sky' card, also coded 115289.

One of Illinois' last grants: 1915. Replaced in 2005. The building was then used as the Carnegie Library Children's Storybook Research Center, but it seems to have gone out of businesh.

Glen Ellyn

In use 1912-1995.

A mystery wrapped in an enigma. Ca. 1925, 1961, and 1980 additions.
I think Glen Ellyn really tried to save the Carnegie building, but by the 1950s,
the handwriting was on the wall (and was on the Library's web site history). First the Library encouraged the cardholders to take home armloads of
books, then another referendum was passed, then a citizen donated money for its reference room.
After all that remodeling and renovation, was it still a classic Carnegie building?

But wait!
The 2011 Patch article linked above claims that the Glen Ellyn school district headquarters engulfed the Carnegie building. Hmm. There is its building at 592 Crescent Boulevard. It looks
like it was built in the 1960s.

Photo postcard with a circled B on front, and DOPS in the stamp box.

Grayville

(L and above) RPPC which features the Carnegie library, among several town buildings.
It was mailed to Canada in 1913.

(R above) Surprise find!
This is what I call a 'pseudo-blue sky' card, as it was not produced by Curt Teich.
I had been told that no printed cards of this building exist. This one was mailed in 1912.

Update!
1911 grant. Replaced 98 years later by the Groff Memorial Library & Museum. As of 2012, it was for sale as city surplus.
It really is a striking building.

Greenup Township (Cumberland County)

(L) The library, resembling that of Adrian, Michigan,
is in the upper right corner.
(R) An I. Stern tinted card, with photo attribution to R.W. Couzet, an evident typo.

Update!
1904 grant. Replaced. In use as a military museum.
It does look a tad martial.

The cards themselves might make an interesting story. Attributed to R.W. Conzet, Chemist, Conzet himself is featured on the view below the oval. He appears to have been involved with water analysis.

The Paul O. Moratz building is on the National Registry of Historic Places.
It resembles Fairbury's Dominy Library, and Sycamore's and to Paxton's Carnegie libraries.

A 1905 Carnegie grant made this building possible,
and it appears from city
and library
websites that it hasn't been altered one bit. It contains the Bond Co. Historical
Society and a noteable genealogical collection.
Obviously, microfilm is their friend.